turned out this was not the bird he was showing interest in, we were in fact looking at
different birds. Apologies to Keith.
An icy cold start to the morning at Fly Flatts with clear blue skies and sunshine on a cold NW>4 at 1 degree and frozen fringes around the water.
As expected, nothing moving in the bright sky over my air space which is usual for this site in the late stages of vis mig.
A single Herring gull >SE plus a Raven was all there was in the sky whilst 4 Stonechat and 7 Goldfinch were on the deck.
An interesting e mail from IH reporting that he had a Ringtail Hen Harrier flying low over Keighley Moor yesterday morning heading for Fly Flatts shortly before I got mine low over the moor >S. Thanks for than Ian.
Mid afternoon and back to Redcar Tarn on gull watch, you dont have to be mad to be a gull watcher but it does help if you are slightly ' lame under t'cap.'
Much quieter today in the cold NW>3 with the Shoveler and Teal moved on and no gulls in the usual fields. All the gulls were on the water today but a much lower count with several small gulls sheltering around the island.
Around 20 Herrings and 30 LBBs on the water including the 4th year sub adult Caspian which stayed on the water throughout, apart from a quick flight across to the feeding area for a snack. A scan through all the small gulls failed to turn up a Med gull which seem a bit scarcer this year.
Around 40 Greylags landed on the water, which is unusual for here, otherwise just the usual species including a good count of Tufted duck and a pair of Goosander.
BS